Month: November 2013

U.S. oil futures finished higher Friday as traders narrowed the gap between the domestic and international benchmarks after the spread reached a roughly eight-month high earlier this week. Light, sweet crude for January delivery rose 42 cents, or 0.5%, to $92.72 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude on the ICE futures exchange declined $1.17, or 1.1%, to $109.69 a barrel. The U.S. contract, known as West Texas Intermediate, or WTI, recovered some of the losses from Wednesday’s selloff, when it sank to a near six-month low amid swelling domestic supplies. Meanwhile, Brent futures, considered to be a gauge of world prices, hovered near a $110 a barrel all week, with support coming from fading concerns […]

Oil remained below $93 a barrel Friday, in light trading a day after the Thanksgiving holiday in the U.S. For the week, oil fell by $2.32 a barrel. At the gas pump, the average price of a gallon of gasoline is $3.28. That’s up 4 cents from a week ago, but down 13 cents from this time last year. The nationwide average is the cheapest for the day after Thanksgiving since 2010. Benchmark U.S. crude for January delivery rose 42 cents to close at $92.72 a barrel Friday on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude, a benchmark for international oils, was down $1.17 at $109.69 a barrel on the ICE exchange in London. In other energy futures trading on Nymex: – Wholesale gasoline fell 3 cents to $2.66 a gallon. – Heating oil fell 1 cent at $3.03 a gallon. – Natural gas rose […]

Brent crude fell for a second day, reducing its premium over West Texas Intermediate futures as the euro slid against the dollar. The European benchmark pared its second monthly gain as the euro declined after climbing to a November high in intraday trading. A weaker euro and stronger dollar reduce crude’s investment appeal. The Brent-WTI spread narrowed for a second day. WTI capped a third monthly decline, the longest losing streak in almost five years. “The reversal of the euro is weighing on Brent prices,” said Phil Flynn , senior market analyst at the Price Futures Group in Chicago . “It seems like there is some profit taking in the Brent-WTI spread. The fundamentals are still bearish for WTI.” Brent for January settlement decreased $1.17, or 1.1 percent, to end the session at $109.69 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange and is up 0.8 percent this […]

OPEC crude production dropped to a two-year low in November, led by declines in Saudi Arabian and Nigerian output, a Bloomberg survey showed. Output by the 12-member Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries decreased 245,000 barrels to an average 30.007 million barrels a day this month from 30.252 million in October, the survey of oil companies , producers and analysts showed. The October total was revised lower by 369,000 barrels a day because of changes to the Saudi and Libyan estimates. Saudi Arabian crude output declined 150,000 barrels a day to 9.65 million. The desert kingdom pumped 10 million barrels a day in September, the most in monthly data going back to 1989. The October estimate was reduced by 200,000 barrels a day. Nigeria’s production dropped 100,000 barrels a day to 1.89 million in November, the lowest level since May. Production is often disrupted by unrest in the Niger River […]

Tensions are emerging within the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries over which member countries should trim oil production to make room for a resurgence in Iraqi exports and the possible return of more Iranian crude to world markets if sanctions are eased. There is no expectation of a decision to cut back at the OPEC cartel’s meeting in Vienna on Wednesday. The group of 12 of the world’s largest producers, though long riven by squabbling, has kept its overall production ceiling at 30 million barrels a day since December 2011. OPEC expects overall demand for its crude to drop by about 300,000 barrels a day next year and some members are pushing to trim output, according to people familiar with the debate. Members will have to decide whether to cut production as early as the first half of the year, with the risk that short-term global supply might […]

Natural gas futures rose for a seventh straight day on Friday, as forecasts for colder-than-normal temperatures, boosted the prospects for near-term heating demand. Natural gas for January delivery gained 5.9 cents, or 1.5%, to $3.954 a million British thermal units on the New York Mercantile Exchange and posted their highest settlement since June 19. Prices gained 37.3 cents, or 10.4%, in November and finished their best month since last March. “The weather forecasts this morning were really supportive and it looks like that outlook will stick around for awhile,” said Kyle Cooper, director of research at IAF Advisors, a Houston energy consultancy. In a research note, MDA Weather Services, a Gaithersburg, Md., weather forecaster, […]

The U.S. State Department extended six-month Iran sanctions waivers on Friday to China, India, South Korea and other countries in exchange for their reducing purchases of Iranian crude oil earlier this year. The waivers had been expected. Under a law governing sanctions imposed on Iran’s disputed nuclear program by the United States, the State Department is required to determine whether the Islamic Republic’s oil consumers have reduced their purchases. The decision comes even after the United States and five other global powers, known as the P5+1, agreed in Geneva this month to ease Iran’s access to about $4.2 billion in foreign currency reserves for six months in exchange for Tehran’s taking steps to curb its nuclear program. The waivers, which the State Department calls exceptions, mean that banks in the consuming countries will not face being cut off from the U.S. financial system for the next […]

The Obama administration said on Friday that it was maintaining tough oil-related sanctions against Iran even though the U.S. and five other world powers have signed an initial deal with Tehran to curb its nuclear program and prevent it from developing nuclear weapons. President Barack Obama has forcefully defended the interim agreement and has asked Congress not to impose new sanctions on Iran while a final, more comprehensive agreement can be negotiated. While pleading with Congress not to “close the door on diplomacy,” Obama has emphasized that crippling economic sanctions imposed on Iran have not been eased. The White House said in a statement that there appears to be a sufficient supply of non-Iranian oil to permit foreign countries to keep cutting back purchases of Iranian oil. In response, the State Department said in a statement that it had extended – for another six months – […]

The Obama administration is hailing the accord with Iran as a victory in its campaign to stop the spread of nuclear weapons, but the deal is already feeding concerns of Arab governments and some proliferation experts that it could have the opposite effect. They worry it could instead fuel the spread of dangerous technologies across the Middle East and Asia. At issue is the agreement’s acceptance of Iran’s demand that at the end of a broader diplomatic process, the country will likely retain some ability to permanently produce nuclear fuel through the enrichment of uranium. Uranium enriched to low levels can be used for peaceful purposes such as energy production. But at higher levels, it can be used to make the fissile core of a nuclear weapon. The deal represents a particular risk of proliferation in the Middle East, where many governments view Iran as a rival, if not […]

The conversation in Western capitals about the nuclear deal signed between world powers and Iran in Geneva last weekend has focused on the degree of sanctions relief and uranium-enrichment limits involved in the tradeoff. But in Tehran, supporters and critics of the agreement in the corridors of power and on the streets see the Geneva deal as nothing less than a historic pivot in the Islamic Republic’s dealings with the West. And that puts the fragile agreement at the very heart of a high-stakes political battle over the country’s future. Credit for Geneva in Iran has gone to the government of President Hassan Rouhani, whose public diplomacy and skillful foreign minister have been essential to securing multilateral Western agreement. But the ultimate responsibility rests with Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who approved the bilateral talks with the United States that laid the groundwork for the accord. “This deal was a wider […]

Ilham Nori Wahid’s eyes fill with tears as he speaks about the bomb attack that left him wounded, and killed his friends and neighbours in northern Iraq’s Kirkuk province. “The sound was so loud that I couldn’t hear anything for three days afterwards. There were five people in front of me and all of them were killed.” The blast came as people were leaving Al-Quds mosque on the first day of the Muslim celebration, Eid al-Adha. Wahid survived, but now has to cope with his physical and psychological scars in a country where violence is at its highest level in five years and the healthcare system is struggling to respond to the needs of patients. Over 135,000 Iraqi civilians were injured in conflict and violence between March 2003 and March 2013 according to Iraq Body Count , but figures from the Iraqi Human […]

A wave of violence Friday killed 52 people in Iraq, most of whom were kidnapped and shot dead with their corpses abandoned, in scenes harking back to Iraq’s sectarian war. The killings come amid a surge in violence that has left more than 600 people dead this month, including several who were snatched from their homes, only for their bodies to be found later, fuelling fears Iraq is slipping back into the communal bloodshed that plagued it from 2005 to 2007. More than 6,000 people have been killed this year, forcing Baghdad to appeal for international help in battling militancy just months before a general election, as official concern focuses on a resurgent Al-Qaeda emboldened by the war in neighbouring Syria. Violence on Friday struck in Baghdad and mostly Sunni […]

A wave of violence Friday killed 52 people in Iraq, most of whom were kidnapped and shot dead with their corpses abandoned, in scenes harking back to Iraq’s sectarian war. The killings come amid a surge in violence that has left more than 600 people dead this month, including several who were snatched from their homes, only for their bodies to be found later, fuelling fears Iraq is slipping back into the communal bloodshed that plagued it from 2005 to 2007. More than 6,000 people have been killed this year, forcing Baghdad to appeal for international help in battling militancy just months before a general election, as official concern focuses on a resurgent Al-Qaeda emboldened by the war in neighbouring Syria. Violence on Friday struck in Baghdad and mostly Sunni […]

Turkey has signed multiple agreements that flesh out its energy alliance with Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region, despite last-ditch efforts by Baghdad and Washington to forestall the deal.In a Nov. 27 meeting in Ankara between Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani, the two sides signed documents to govern export pipelines, the sale of gas, and the handling of revenue, according to two people involved in the negot… This content is for registered users. Please login to continue. If you are not a registered user, you may purchase a subscription or sign up for a free trial .

Eighteen people were found dead in what appeared to be an execution-style killing on Friday, their bodies dumped on a farm near the predominantly Sunni neighborhood where they had been rounded up the night before, according to the police. Armed men in sport utility vehicles and dressed in military uniforms swarmed into the neighborhood of Mashahdi in northern Baghdad late on Thursday and singled out 18 people, taking them from separate residences, the police said, quoting witness accounts. The bodies of the victims, who were all Sunnis, were discovered in the morning riddled with bullets, the police said. The victims included a leader from the Dulaimi tribe, one of the largest and most prominent Sunni tribes in Iraq; his son; a local municipal official; an army officer; and a police officer. A farmer in the area, Kareem al-Jasim, said he had witnessed the roundup in Mashahdi by […]

Turkey and Iraqi Kurdistan signed a multi-billion-dollar energy package this week that will help transform the semi-autonomous region into an oil and gas powerhouse but infuriate the central government in Baghdad. The move follows months of negotiations and was learned from sources close to the deal on Friday after being kept secret. Baghdad says any independent Kurdish oil exports are illegal and that it has the sole authority to manage Iraqi oil. For energy-hungry Turkey, dependent on imports for almost all of its needs, exploiting Iraqi Kurdistan’s rich hydrocarbon resources will help diversify its energy supplies and reduce the country’s ballooning $60 billion energy bill. Ankara’s close partnership with Iraqi Kurds is historic and to many, marks the beginning of a new era, given the decades-long fight with Kurdish militants on Turkish soil that has claimed more than 40,000 lives. The deal came in the early […]

White tents with "The U.N. Refugee Agency" written on them flap in the wind outside the Lebanese mountain town of Arsal. Children run past latrines and water points. In all respects, it is a refugee camp, but you must not call it that, say officials. The site is home to about 350 people who have fled the civil war in neighboring Syria – the first officially U.N.-run plot set up for displaced Syrians in Lebanon, complete with running water, toilets and other services. But in a sign of the extreme sensitivities over refugees in the Mediterranean state, the authorities are doing all they can to play down any suggestion it is a settled facility for long-term residents. "It’s not a camp, it’s a temporary transit site," said one aid worker showing journalists round the site on Friday. Countries across the region have grown increasingly concerned […]

White tents with "The U.N. Refugee Agency" written on them flap in the wind outside the Lebanese mountain town of Arsal. Children run past latrines and water points. In all respects, it is a refugee camp, but you must not call it that, say officials. The site is home to about 350 people who have fled the civil war in neighboring Syria – the first officially U.N.-run plot set up for displaced Syrians in Lebanon, complete with running water, toilets and other services. But in a sign of the extreme sensitivities over refugees in the Mediterranean state, the authorities are doing all they can to play down any suggestion it is a settled facility for long-term residents. "It’s not a camp, it’s a temporary transit site," said one aid worker showing journalists round the site on Friday. Countries across the region have grown increasingly concerned […]

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Friday promised to intensify his crusade against alleged speculators and greedy businesses which he says are contributing to the oil-rich country’s economic troubles and pledged more state control over sectors fueling sky-high inflation. The leader unveiled a new price cap for commercial real estate and also appointed a few of his cabinet members to run a recently created state agency that will oversee all of Venezuela imports and exports, as well as access to dollars in a country that has had tight currency controls for the last decade. They are the latest measures by Mr. Maduro as he tries to tame an inflation rate well above 50%, rapid depreciation of the local bolivar currency and a shortage of dollars in the import-dependent economy, which has resulted in shortages of food and consumer goods. Regional elections on Dec. 8 are adding pressure […]

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Friday promised to intensify his crusade against alleged speculators and greedy businesses which he says are contributing to the oil-rich country’s economic troubles and pledged more state control over sectors fueling sky-high inflation. The leader unveiled a new price cap for commercial real estate and also appointed a few of his cabinet members to run a recently created state agency that will oversee all of Venezuela imports and exports, as well as access to dollars in a country that has had tight currency controls for the last decade. They are the latest measures by Mr. Maduro as he tries to tame an inflation rate well above 50%, rapid depreciation of the local bolivar currency and a shortage of dollars in the import-dependent economy, which has resulted in shortages of food and consumer goods. Regional elections on Dec. 8 are adding pressure […]

Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro said a stricter wave of inspections for suspected price-gouging would begin on Saturday in an aggressive pre-election "economic offensive" aimed at taming the highest inflation in the Americas. "We’re not joking, we’re defending the rights of the majority, their economic freedom," Maduro said on Friday, alleging price irregularities were found in nearly 99 percent of 1,705 businesses inspected so far this month. Maduro, who has staked his presidency on preserving the legacy of late socialist leader Hugo Chavez, launched a theatrical – and often televised – wave of inspections this month to force companies to reduce prices. He says "capitalist parasites" are trying to wreck Venezuela’s economy and force him from office. Opponents scoff at the measures as cheap and short-term populism that is hiding the failure of Venezuela’s socialist economic model and intended to win votes at an upcoming poll. Economic […]

Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro said a stricter wave of inspections for suspected price-gouging would begin on Saturday in an aggressive pre-election "economic offensive" aimed at taming the highest inflation in the Americas. "We’re not joking, we’re defending the rights of the majority, their economic freedom," Maduro said on Friday, alleging price irregularities were found in nearly 99 percent of 1,705 businesses inspected so far this month. Maduro, who has staked his presidency on preserving the legacy of late socialist leader Hugo Chavez, launched a theatrical – and often televised – wave of inspections this month to force companies to reduce prices. He says "capitalist parasites" are trying to wreck Venezuela’s economy and force him from office. Opponents scoff at the measures as cheap and short-term populism that is hiding the failure of Venezuela’s socialist economic model and intended to win votes at an upcoming poll. Economic […]

China is moving to increase the clout of its state-owned coal giants, as it seeks to clean up a sprawling and heavily polluting industry that is nevertheless crucial to its energy needs. In a policy proposal unveiled Thursday, the State Council, China’s cabinet, said it wants big corporate champions to manage the economic development and environmental consequences of the industry, which also has a slew of smaller operators. The government said it would “encourage the consolidation of coal companies, with large-scale companies as the main body, building large-scale modern coal mines within large-scale coal bases.” Analysts said the proposal also puts the industry more firmly under the control of Beijing. The new measures “protect state-owned enterprises as much as they protect the environment,” said North Square Blue Oak energy analyst Miao Tian. In helping state-owned giants to assert their position in the industry, Beijing may be conceding it can’t […]

China is moving to increase the clout of its state-owned coal giants, as it seeks to clean up a sprawling and heavily polluting industry that is nevertheless crucial to its energy needs. In a policy proposal unveiled Thursday, the State Council, China’s cabinet, said it wants big corporate champions to manage the economic development and environmental consequences of the industry, which also has a slew of smaller operators. The government said it would “encourage the consolidation of coal companies, with large-scale companies as the main body, building large-scale modern coal mines within large-scale coal bases.” Analysts said the proposal also puts the industry more firmly under the control of Beijing. The new measures “protect state-owned enterprises as much as they protect the environment,” said North Square Blue Oak energy analyst Miao Tian. In helping state-owned giants to assert their position in the industry, Beijing may be conceding it can’t […]

Trend is to Store more Oil A year ago oil in storage stood at 274 million barrels, and with another robust year of domestic production, and despite curtailed imports, the US Oil Inventory stands at 391 million barrels and climbing. The domestic need for refined products was stagnant at best, the real demand was in the export market, without a robust export market for refined products, oil supplies would have crushed the 400 Million Barrier this summer, and prices at the pump would have been much cheaper here stateside. So the drawing season accounted for roughly a 40 million barrel retracement in US supplies, and we are not even close to the middle of the building season, which even by conservative estimates should continue until mid-March of 2014. We might have some year-end selling of US inventories due to tax reasons, especially in Texas, but after all […]

New York has issued a moratorium for hydraulic fracturing in the portions of the Marcellus Shale that fall within its borders, but the state is benefiting economically and environmentally from the fracking going on in neighboring Pennsylvania, as NPR reported. New York City, for example, has rolled out a program, “NYC Clean Heat, ” to encourage building owners to switch from heating oil to natural gas. One building owner told NPR that by switching, he expects to reduce his building’s energy costs by 50 percent. The abundance of natural gas produced by fracking in places like the Marcellus has driven down prices and made those savings possible. The irony, as NPR points out, is that most New Yorkers oppose fracking: In polls, New York City voters have opposed fracking. “It’s varied anywhere from 1- or 2-point margin of opposition to as much as […]

New York has issued a moratorium for hydraulic fracturing in the portions of the Marcellus Shale that fall within its borders, but the state is benefiting economically and environmentally from the fracking going on in neighboring Pennsylvania, as NPR reported. New York City, for example, has rolled out a program, “NYC Clean Heat, ” to encourage building owners to switch from heating oil to natural gas. One building owner told NPR that by switching, he expects to reduce his building’s energy costs by 50 percent. The abundance of natural gas produced by fracking in places like the Marcellus has driven down prices and made those savings possible. The irony, as NPR points out, is that most New Yorkers oppose fracking: In polls, New York City voters have opposed fracking. “It’s varied anywhere from 1- or 2-point margin of opposition to as much as […]

*Norway’s Statoil said it would be decades until drilling begins for much of the Arctic’s vast untapped oil and gas reserves due to the challenges of working in one of the world’s harshest environments. State-owned Statoil hopes to tap into the reserves of about 90 billion barrels of oil equivalent that the U.S. Geological Survey estimates lie in the Arctic, amounting to almost three years of total global demand or a third of Saudi Arabia’s remaining petroleum reserves. But the company’s exploration chief, Tim Dodson, said the likely costs involved, regulatory complexities and harsh weather conditions meant drilling in much of the Arctic […]

Coal has regained a little ground this year as the fuel of choice for U.S. power plants—except in Appalachia, where natural gas for electricity generation has become extremely cheap. So much gas is being pumped from the Marcellus Shale, and so few pipelines serve the area, that a glut has developed in Pennsylvania and West Virginia, driving down the price of electricity and making it hard for coal to compete. Several companies have told regulators they want to close coal plants, and one owned by a private-equity firm has filed for bankruptcy protection. Sunbury Generation LLC plans to close its 60-year-old coal plant in Shimokin Dam, Pa., north of Harrisburg, because the price for electricity it sells on the open market is just too low to cover its costs. “It is difficult to run merchant coal plants in Pennsylvania,” said Dave Meehan, the company’s president. “Even though we’re old, […]

Cenovus Energy Inc. aims to bring methods more common to the factory floor to Alberta’s oil sands in a bid to cut costs per barrel by up to half and double production in less than a decade. “What we want to do is take manufacturing techniques, where we use the same template over and over again, for [building] mostly the same surface facilities” for equipment needed to extract oil from deep underground, Chief Executive Brian Ferguson […]

Cenovus Energy Inc. aims to bring methods more common to the factory floor to Alberta’s oil sands in a bid to cut costs per barrel by up to half and double production in less than a decade. “What we want to do is take manufacturing techniques, where we use the same template over and over again, for [building] mostly the same surface facilities” for equipment needed to extract oil from deep underground, Chief Executive Brian Ferguson […]

The JODI data came out a few days ago. Below is JODI World Total C+C with EIA data used for countries not reporting to JODI. I use EIA data also for Venezuela and Iran because JODI uses data reported by these two countries which is political and inflated by about one million barrels per day by Iran and half a million barrels a day by Venezuela. The data is in kb/d with the last data point September 2013. Notice that JODI has a new world high in July just like the EIA had but down 976,000 barrels per day from July to to September. JODI has Non-OPEC at about 350,000 barrels below the peak in December 2012. I don’t put much stock in the JODI data but I do find it interesting look at occasionally. And since it is usually almost two months […]

Ending the Great Stagnation that is taxing Western policy makers may depend as much on the Chinese Communist Party as it does on the world’s leading central banks. Six years after the global financial crisis erupted, there is any number of explanations why Europe cannot shake off a Japan-style balance-sheet recession and why the United States is experiencing sub-par growth and high unemployment. Governments and households racked up too much debt to sustain living standards. Demographic tailwinds have turned into headwinds as baby boomers retire and the surge of women entering the workforce has run its course. Many banks are still ailing and are building up capital instead of lending freely. But two other factors cannot be overlooked. Firstly, there is an excess of global savings, which has lowered the natural real rate of interest that equalizes savings and investment. The result is a liquidity trap. […]

Ending the Great Stagnation that is taxing Western policy makers may depend as much on the Chinese Communist Party as it does on the world’s leading central banks. Six years after the global financial crisis erupted, there is any number of explanations why Europe cannot shake off a Japan-style balance-sheet recession and why the United States is experiencing sub-par growth and high unemployment. Governments and households racked up too much debt to sustain living standards. Demographic tailwinds have turned into headwinds as baby boomers retire and the surge of women entering the workforce has run its course. Many banks are still ailing and are building up capital instead of lending freely. But two other factors cannot be overlooked. Firstly, there is an excess of global savings, which has lowered the natural real rate of interest that equalizes savings and investment. The result is a liquidity trap. […]

West Texas Intermediate crude headed for a third monthly decline, the longest losing streak in almost five years, amid rising OPEC exports and increased supplies in the U.S., the world’s biggest oil consumer. Futures were little changed in New York after falling 1.5 percent on Nov. 27, the most in two weeks. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, which meets next week, will boost exports through mid-December by 3 percent as refineries resume after maintenance, according to tanker tracker Oil Movements. The U.S. pumped crude at the fastest rate in almost 25 years while inventories climbed to the highest since June, Energy Information Administration data released on Nov. 27 show. “The momentum is negative in WTI,” said Ole Hansen, head of commodity strategy at Saxo Bank A/S in Copenhagen. “U.S. production compared to just a year ago has continued to rise strongly. There still hasn’t been strong enough demand […]

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries will bolster crude shipments through to mid-December, driven by Iraq and as refiners come out of maintenance, according to tanker tracker Oil Movements. OPEC, which supplies about 40 percent of the world’s oil, will raise sailings by 700,000 barrels a day, or 3 percent, to 24.05 million barrels in the four weeks to Dec. 14, the researcher said today in a report. That compares with 23.35 million in the period to Nov. 16. The figures exclude two of OPEC’s 12 members, Angola and Ecuador . “The main driver is the increase in capacity as refineries come out of maintenance both east and west of Suez,” Roy Mason , the company’s founder, said by phone from Halifax, England . The increase will come mostly from Iraq, while the “Saudis are lagging behind,” Mason said. This time last year, Saudi Arabia reduced exports “sharply” in […]

Members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries will have to accommodate any additional oil supply into the market in light of the recent easing of economic sanctions on Iran without changes to the cartel’s overall production ceiling, Venezuela Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez said Thursday. Mr. Ramirez said how Iranian crude is absorbed into the market will feature highly in discussions next week when OPEC members gather. Venezuela will push to maintain the group’s 30-million-barrels-a-day quota, the minister said. The U.S. and five other world powers reached an agreement on Sunday in Geneva to relieve some penalties on Iran in exchange for moves to cap the Islamic government’s nuclear program. “If this permits Iran to reach its maximum oil production, perfect. Then its production quota is guaranteed in OPEC, which must be respected, and we are going to back that [Iran’s] normalization is respected,” Mr. Ramirez […]

Aban Offshore Ltd. (ABAN) , Asia’s third-most- indebted oil rig provider, will be able to obtain cheaper U.S. and European financing following the easing of some sanctions on Iran, the Indian company’s biggest market. The company will be able to cut its cost of debt by as much as 2.5 percentage points as the easing of sanctions allows Aban to borrow from European and U.S. banks, a route previously closed, according three analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News. The driller had debt equivalent to 129.9 billion rupees ($2.1 billion) as of Sept. 30, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, eight times as much its market value. The relaxation of some restrictions on Iran by the U.S. and five other world powers will let companies with operations in the Islamic Republic get loans and insure their assets. Aban, which earns about 40 percent of its revenue from rigs leased to Iranian […]

Police found the corpses of 18 men shot near a Sunni town just north of Baghdad on Friday, Iraqi officials said, hours after they were abducted by gunmen wearing military uniforms. Elsewhere near the capital, two separate bomb attacks killed four. Such killings are reminiscent of Iraq’s worst days of sectarian warfare in 2006 and 2007, when both Shiite and Sunni Muslim death squads roamed the streets and took people from their homes. Police said the abducted men were killed with shots to the head. The bodies were found early Friday in farmland near the Sunni-dominated town of Mishahda, some 30 kilometers (20 miles) north of Baghdad. Gunmen in four cars snatched the men, who included two army officers, from their houses late Thursday. Earlier this week, police found 13 bodies in areas around Baghdad. Later, in the afternoon, a bomb went off inside a sheep […]

Exxon Mobil Corp. agreed to sell stakes in its West Qurna-1 oil project in Iraq to PetroChina Co. and PT Pertamina (Persero) of Indonesia. Exxon said Thursday that PetroChina would take a 25% stake in the project and Pertamina would take a 10% stake. The West Qurna-1 field is located near Basra in southern Iraq. It is one of several big fields that Western oil companies agreed in 2010 to help Iraq develop. After selling the stakes, Exxon will retain 25% of the field and continue as its operator. The rest of the field is owned by Royal Dutch Shell PLC and Iraq’s state-owned South Oil Co.Click here to view full article at online.wsj.com

In a terrace cafe within earshot of army artillery, a 28-year-old graduate student wept as she confessed that she had stopped planning antigovernment protests and delivering medical supplies to rebel-held towns. Khaled, 33, a former protester who fled Damascus after being tortured and fired from his bank post, quit his job in Turkey with the exile opposition, disillusioned and saying that he wished the uprising “had never happened.” In the Syrian city of Homs, a rebel fighter, Abu Firas, 30, recently put down the gun his wife had sold her jewelry to buy, disgusted with his commanders, who, he said, focus on enriching themselves. Now he finds himself trapped under government shelling, broke and hopeless. “The ones who fight now are from the side of the regime or the side of the thieves,” he said in a recent interview via Skype. “I was stupid and naïve,” […]

The deal is already facing backlash from a prominent environmentalist and First Nations rights advocate The Chinese oil and gas company Sinopec is in talks to buy a stake in a $15 billion natural gas export project in British Columbia. Tomohiro Ohsumi/Bloomberg/Getty Images China’s largest state-owned oil and gas company, Sinopec, is reportedly in talks to invest in a multibillion-dollar natural gas export project in North America. An advocate for First Nations rights and environmental protectionism told Al Jazeera that China’s burgeoning investment in Canadian energy is facilitating a free-trade agreement that would essentially allow Beijing to nullify Canadian indigenous peoples’ rights to resources. A Sinopec executive in North America acknowledged that the company is in talks to buy a stake in the $15 billion Kitimat LNG project — which liquefies natural gas for ease of transport — in northern British Columbia, but declined to comment, saying all media […]

Muhammad Latif stays in his neat office these days, upstairs from the vast textile factory he founded in 1975. Until a few years ago, he says, his business, Chenab Ltd., made high-end sportswear and bed linen for some of America’s best-known retailers, from Macy’s to Tommy Hilfiger to Victoria’s Secret, in this industrial city in central Pakistan. A workforce that peaked at 14,000 fed rolls of cloth into state-of-the art Italian and German machines or sewed garments on sprawling automated production lines. Today, crippled by the shortages of electricity that have paralyzed this country in the past five years, most of the machinery stands idle, and the staff has shrunk to 4,500. Sales for the year ended in June are down nearly 75% to 2.17 billion Pakistani rupees, or about $20 million, from 2008, according to the company. “I don’t go downstairs. I get depressed there,” Mr. […]

Muhammad Latif stays in his neat office these days, upstairs from the vast textile factory he founded in 1975. Until a few years ago, he says, his business, Chenab Ltd., made high-end sportswear and bed linen for some of America’s best-known retailers, from Macy’s to Tommy Hilfiger to Victoria’s Secret, in this industrial city in central Pakistan. A workforce that peaked at 14,000 fed rolls of cloth into state-of-the art Italian and German machines or sewed garments on sprawling automated production lines. Today, crippled by the shortages of electricity that have paralyzed this country in the past five years, most of the machinery stands idle, and the staff has shrunk to 4,500. Sales for the year ended in June are down nearly 75% to 2.17 billion Pakistani rupees, or about $20 million, from 2008, according to the company. “I don’t go downstairs. I get depressed there,” Mr. […]

US ethanol production climbed 2.5% in the week ending November 22 to 927,000 b/d, matching the highest level so far this year, as makers of the biofuel boost output on cheaper corn costs, data from the Energy Information Administration show. Production was lifted by a widening spread between the cost of corn, the chief feedstock in the manufacturing of ethanol in the US, and the final selling price of the biofuel in Chicago, home to the country’s most active spot market for the gasoline oxygenate. The so-called crush spread, an indication of how profitable it is to turn a bushel of corn into ethanol, rose to $1.4/gal on November 22 from $0.63/gal on the previous week, according to Platts data. The crush spread fell to $0.91/gal on November 27, but remained above the average recorded so far in November of $0.62/gal. The crush […]

Oil consolidated at a six-month low Thursday after U.S. crude stockpiles rose for a tenth straight week. Benchmark U.S. crude for January delivery was down 10 cents at $92.20 a barrel at early afternoon Bangkok time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell $1.38 to close Wednesday at $92.30. Oil has declined from about $110 in September due to a muted outlook for demand, high supplies and reduced tensions in the oil-rich Middle East. The Energy Department reported that crude supplies increased by 3 million barrels, or 0.8 percent, in the week ended Nov. 22. The nation’s supply of crude oil is now 391.4 million barrels, which is 4.6 percent above year-ago levels and “well above the upper limit of the average range for this time of year,” the report said. Brent crude, a benchmark for international oils, was up 19 […]

Natural gas futures settled at a five-month high on Wednesday as traders bet on increasing demand for the heating fuel ahead of projected colder temperatures in the heart of the winter season. Natural gas for January delivery rose 3.1 cents, or 0.8%, to $3.895 a million British thermal units on the New York Mercantile Exchange, reaching the highest settlement value since June 19. The price gains came despite the release of a closely-watched U.S. government storage report, which showed that natural gas stockpiles fell less than analysts had expected last week. “I don’t think it’s the report itself that’s supporting the market. It’s a combination of the on-going momentum, as we are […]